I just posted an article detailing how Rajiv Gandhi was implicated in Viggen Aircraft deal.
Now report indicates that Rajiv Gandhi was paid US $ 990,000 by Boeing.
An article in the Michigan daily dated 10 September 1977 quoted a New Indian Express story to this effect.
The article by the New Indian express is not available.
Can someone find it?
However I found some interesting information from the WSJ where in indicates that its expose of Boeing payouts might have delayed the signing of the Boeing deal and there is a mention of this amount.
“On February 5, 1977, the Cabinet of then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi approved the purchase of three Boeing 737 aircraft for Rs 30.55 crore, swiftly bringing to a close the deal in less than nine months of setting up a committee to recommend how the fleet capacity of Indian Airlines should be augmented.
These nine months saw several controversies around the exercise, including a meeting in the room of Indian Airlines’ acting chairman A H Mehta, where “Indira Gandhi’s son”, Rajiv Gandhi (who was then an Avro commander with the airline), was ushered in and shown some “financial projections”, a procedure the J C Shah Commission later found “totally outside the ordinary course of business”. The Shah commission that probed excesses of the Emergency years (1975-77) also brought out how the Boeing deal was pushed by Indira Gandhi and rushed through after overruling the recommendations of the Planning Commission and the Public Investment Board.
However, soon after the Cabinet’s approval of the Boeing deal, Indira Gandhi had told the then civil aviation and tourism minister,
K Raghuramaiah, about a WSJ report and advised him to wait before the purchase order was placed. On February 8, Indira Gandhi told Raghuramaiah to “go ahead” and “place the order”. The minister did just that: He informed the IA management about the Cabinet approval and the contract with Boeing was signed on February 9, 1977. (Please see Business Standard’s April 18 report: “Controversial Boeing Deal of 1976-77: Rajiv Gandhi met IA brass, was shown financial details against norms”, http://goo.gl/95yZI)
A Business Standard investigation into what precisely led to the delay reveals that Indira Gandhi might have become cautious after the publication of the WSJ report in January 1977 referring to questionable payments made by US companies, including Boeing. On January 21, 1977, WSJ carried a report headlined “Questionable Payments Total Put at $412 Million”. It mentioned Boeing as “topping the list” of 288 companies which had made questionable payments.
Quoting a study by a Washington concern, Charles E Simon and Co, the news report went on to state that Boeing had admitted to making payments of $70 million. The details were collated from information filed by the companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The list, according to the WSJ report, included other prominent American corporations (with the payment amounts in brackets): Exxon Corp ($46 million), Northrop Corp ($32 million), Lockheed Aircraft Corp ($25 million) and Armco Steel ($17.5 million). The report also carried a disclaimer that the summary of payments included commissions, agent fees, over-billings and other payments, “many of which may not be deemed improper”.
Indira Gandhi’s caution over concluding the deal was understandable. The final go-ahead for signing the contract might have been given only after ensuring that nothing specifically controversial about the deal appeared in any foreign newspaper. Domestic politics might have also prompted the hasty decisions that drove the deal.
Related Articles
- Rajiv Gandhi Middleman In Viggen Aircraft Deal (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
- REVEALED: Rajiv Gandhi’s role in Boeing deal (rediff.com)
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